Mongolian yurt - bathroom options?

[yurtgirl]

Hello,

Just wondering how this would work? You'd have to build some sort of bath house right? Out of what? How would you heat it? What if off-grid? Help!

[Bob Rowlands]

Here's simple nomadic bath house for cheap. Get yourself a cheap 9x9 umbrella or

dome

tent from the big box sporting goods store. Don't get a good one, get a cheap one. Erect it in a suitable location out of the wind, and stake it down and guy it out. Cheap tents collapse easily. Install a cheap plastic chair. Add a rope to the inside tent loops to hang clothes and towel.

Rig up your cheapo solar shower filled with hot water from the tent apex. Take a shower. If you want a steam bath, add a metal tub, and a bucket of water. Heat rocks in a fire till good and hot(not stones from a stream) Scoop up the rocks with a shovel and drop them in the metal tub inside the tent. Toss water on em. Sit in the chair and luxuriate in the heat. Now you have a sweat lodge.

Poke a hole in the floor where the water pools up deepest to drain the bath house.

[Surely Yurts - Steve]

Though a yurt is an elegant option, I agree that anything from a good tree to a cheap umbrella tent can serve as your bath house.

More importantly is that we try to balance being as comfortable as possible while also being mindful of how we are dealing with our waste.

Here is a link to a great resource: The Humanure Handbook - Center of the Humanure Composting Universe

Off the grid bathrooming for me is great, I take my showers in a 10' yurt with a woodstove to heat a 5 gallon pot of water then a 12V solar pump from there to the shower head. No grid necessary in the outhouse, simply wood shavings in a bucket which then gets chucked into the compost.

[Jake]

That is an excellent book, to me a must read for anyone interested in Yurts. A 10' tent is a great place to begin on this project.